Tag: Greenhouse effect

A number of available mitigation options have been identified that if rapidly implemented have the potential to deliver rapid multiple benefits for human well-being by improving air quality and reducing near term global ...

SLCPs are responsible for a substantial fraction of near term climate change, with a particularly large impact on sensitive regions of the world, and have significant detrimental health, agricultural and environmental im...

Feedback refers to the modification of a process by changes resulting from the process itself. Positive feedbacks accelerate the process, while negative feedbacks slow it down. Part of the uncertainty around future clima...

There are three main factors that directly influence the energy balance of the earth: the total energy influx, which depends on the earth's distance from the sun and on solar activity; the chemical composition of the atm...

When global surface temperatures increase, changes in precipitation and atmospheric moisture are very likely to increase: the hydrological cycle will be more active, and the atmosphere will increase its water holding cap...

A comparison between the amount of CO2 emissions of the world and latin America and the Caribbean.
Since pre-industrial times, the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases has grown significantly. The present level...

Large tropical hydropower reservoirs in Latin America may have a potential adverse impact on the climatic system through releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Submerging large areas of land and tropical vegetat...

Landfi ling is the most common waste management practice, and results in the release of methane from the anaerobic decomposition of organic materials. Methane is around 20 times more potent as a GHG than carbon dioxide. ...

The disposal and treatment of waste can produce emissions of several greenhouse gases (GHGs), which contribute to global climate change. The most significant GHG gas produced from waste is methane. It is released during ...

Atmospheric concentration of CO2 is steadily rising, and oceans directly assimilate CO2. As ocean concentration of CO2 increases, the oceans automatically become more acidic. This, in turn, may have severe impacts on co...

A significant sea level rise is one of the major anticipated consequences of climate change. This graphic explains the causes of sea level change according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It expl...

In desert areas by 2050, the majority of the temperature increase, according to the NCAR-CCSM3 model (and the IPCC SRES A2 scenario), will occur in the Northern Sahara, western Australia and in the inland deserts of Nort...

SRES scenarios show the period 2071 to 2100 relative to the period 1961 to 1990, and were performed by AOGCMs. Scenarios A2 and B2 are shown as no AOGCM runs were available for the other SRES scenarios.

Emissions of N20 have a role in the enhanced greenhouse effect. N20 is a long-lived gas, surviving in the atmosphere for about 130 years. The concentration of N20 in the atmosphere is increasing due to a variety of sourc...

The icebreaking date for the Tornio River in Finland has been recorded since 1693. With the increased greenhouse effect, impacts on the cryosphere are likely. One impact will be less ice on rivers and lakes. Freeze-up da...

Radiative forcing is the change in the balance between radiation coming into the atmosphere and radiation going out. A positive radiative forcing tends on average to warm the surface of the Earth, and negative forcing te...

Using the IS92 emission scenarios, projected global mean temperature changes relative to 1990 were calculated up to 2100. Climate models calculate that the global mean surface temperature could rise by about 1 to 4.5 cen...

The global carbon cycle shows the carbon reservoirs in GtC (gigatonne= one thousand million tonnes) and fluxes in GtC/year. The indicated figures are annual averages over the period 1980 to 1989.
The component cycles ar...

The icebreaking date for the Tornio River in Finland has been recorded since 1693. With the increased greenhouse effect, impacts on the cryosphere are likely. One impact will be less ice on rivers and lakes. Freeze-up da...